Some 1,500 postal votes were not counted at the time of the Stretford and Urmston by-election, The Messenger understands.

The contest was won by Andrew Western after Kate Green stood down to become the Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester.

Around the time of the Stretford and Urmston by-election on December 15, there were postal strikes across the UK by members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

The council anticipated problems with postal votes as a result and arranged for locations across the area for residents to take them instead.

READ MORE: Andrew Western becomes the MP for Stretford and Urmston.

Despite this, some 1,500 postal votes were not counted. There are a range of explanations for this, but it is understood a lot of them were not returned in time for the close of poll.

The total is not enough to change the result, as the contest was won by almost 10,000 ballots, but in light of low turnout is enough to constitute around 7.5 per cent of the vote.

It is more than the number of ballots for the bottom five candidates put together.

A spokesperson for Trafford Council said: "At every election, there are always a number of postal votes that are returned after the close of poll and that cannot be counted.

"We do all we can to publicise the date of the election and encourage those with a postal votes to return them on time. 

"At the Stretford and Urmston by-election we hand delivered postal votes to those who asked for them and people were also given the option of dropping them off at locations within communities leading up to polling day or at their polling station on polling day. However not all were returned to us before the close of poll for various reasons which were beyond our control."

READ MORE: Kate Green confirmed as Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester.

Cllr Western, who remains a councillor for Priory Ward in addition to his role in the House of Commons, added: "We knew there would be problems with postal votes when having a by-election in December. 

"The uncounted votes would not however have affected the result and we were delighted to win with a clear majority."

This article was written by Jack Tooth. To contact him, email jack.tooth@newsquest.co.uk or follow @JTRTooth on Twitter.